Pope Francis to Visit Canada in July

by Kaniehtonkie

Pope Francis plans to visit Canada this summer so he can apologize in person for abuse suffered by Indigenous people at the hands of the Catholic church. The Vatican announced that Pope Francis will travel to Canada on July 24 and visit Edmonton, Quebec and Iqaluit, a small town in that Canada’s far north. About half the population of Iqaluit is Inuit. The pope leaves for the Vatican on July 29.

In April, Pope Francis made a ‘historic apology’ to Indigenous delegates for abuses in Canada’s church-run residential schools. He expressed “sorrow and shame” for the lack of respect for Indigenous identities, culture and spiritual values. It was during the delgates visit Pope Francis said he wanted to go to Canada to deliver the apology personally, to survivors of’ misguided Catholic missionary zeal.’

When the Archbishop of Canterbury visited Saskatchewan earlier this month, Indigenous leaders, first residential school survivors and second and third generations residential school survivors made the archbishop aware of the damage caused by the Doctrine of Discovery.

Many historians and survivors tie the Doctrine of Discovery to the creation and presence of residential schools.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission recently said its ripple effect is still being felt in schools today. The commission’s findings, as survivors told the archbishop during his visit, show residential school policy could be traced back to the doctrine and the papal bulls. Chiefs and leaders who attended the archbishop’s visits in James Smith Cree Nation and Prince Albert commended the promise to discuss the doctrine with the Roman Catholic Church.

The Doctrine of Discovery’s supposed power came from the Roman Catholic Church. Papal bulls, edicts from the pope guiding colonial powers on the treatment of Indigenous people, were issued in the 15th century. The bulls, which empowered Christian colonial expansion, said any land “discovered” by colonial powers could be claimed as their own. They also stated Indigenous people who inhabited those lands were not Christian and could be subjugated and converted to Christianity. 

Colonial powers and nations eventually formed via the doctrine, creating their own policies designed to terminate the rights of Indigenous people. In Canada, the termination of Indigenous rights came through the Indian Act, and policies within the act led to the creation of residential schools in Canada. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission says it was a system designed to destroy Indigenous people’s sense of self-identity, cultural identity and connection to family.

The Doctrine of Discovery never superseded Indigenous people’s inherent rights, just disregarded by it. The doctrine allowed for and created the thinking that colonial powers could occupy Indigenous lands and territories, and in turn the thinking that Indigenous people are inferior to non-Indigenous people, particularly European settlers. Disregarding inherent rights - the inherent sovereignty of our nations and inherent rights to self-determination, the inherent right to land, resources, health, education, justice, health, social development, and economics.

Former Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner, Murray Sinclair said thinking that colonial powers are superior to Indigenous people is something that permeated the Canadian and United States education system even beyond residential schools.

He told CBC, non-Indigenous children taught in school early on to believe they’re superior are potentially jeopardizing their relationship with Indigenous people. Sinclair says that factor is something that affected him and other Indigenous people as children and caused a deep distrust of all levels of non-Indigenous society – churches, educational systems, government and many others.

The Archbishop of Canterbury himself can’t rescind the papal bulls making up the Doctrine of Discovery. Rescinding of the document would come down to the Pope.

The archbishop promised survivors gathered in James Smith Cree Nation and Prince Albert earlier in April he would ‘engage in discussions with the Pope about the harms he learned about the doctrine while in Saskatchewan.’

Sinclair said he looks to the future when the Doctrine of Discovery is finally rescinded.

“I think it’s a matter of time before the Doctrine of Discovery is ruled as being an irrelevant doctrine,” Sinclair told CBC.